Essays For Harvard Business School

Good luck to all those who submitted to HBS in Round 2! The final wave of interview invites (and the dreaded “release”) happens on Jan. 30. If you were given a Further Consideration in Round 1 then you’re likely to hear something on the final-wave day. Read up on the interview process at HBS here.

The Harvard MBA application guide to the Class of 2020 Harvard essay and app will help you understand what needs to be in a successful pitch. Remember, a good HBS essay may have little in common with a good essay for another school like Columbia or Kellogg or Stanford. And OMG, apps were up 6% at HBS last year?!??

Harvard 2017 MBA Essay & Recommendations – Class of 2020

The Harvard essay question will be the same this year:

“As we review your application, what more would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy for the Harvard Business School MBA Program?”

This is deceptively simple. You need to know what you bring to the table — and who you are — before you can even begin to craft a response.

This is also one of the easiest essays to unintentionally come across as disingenuous and fake. We began a series of posts on The Strategy of Authenticity which is designed to help you build an awareness for what is, and isn’t, authentic, so you can present yourself truthfully, sincerely, and with impact in your MBA apps.

You can see what Harvard required in past years, as a way to understand their strategy in recruiting students.

Harvard’s Can we just say “OUCH”?? Class of 2019 profile is INSANE. They got over 10,000 applications (which hasn’t happened since 2001) — 10,351 to be precise. That’s a 6.1% increase over their prior year. And that prior year was almost 1% more than the year before, which was 1.5% more than the year before THAT, which was 2.4%… You get the point. Hopefully you can see what you’re up against: Average GPA of 3.71, which in case you didn’t read that right is three point seven. 80% GMAT range of 700 to 770. DID YOU SEE THAT? 80% RANGE STARTS AT 700?!?? Yield is back up to 91%. Given these daunting figures, maybe you’d like to get EssaySnark’s opinion on your Harvard essay?

HBS 2017 MBA Dates and Deadlines

HBS MBA Admissions Deadlines

Interview invites will come in two batches in the first week of October (October 2nd and October 5th, to be specific). If you aren’t invited in the final batch, you’ll be “released” (that is, if they’re not going to keep you on the further-consideration list; see this post for an explanation).

; interview invites will likely be issued in two waves, with the bulk of them coming on Jan. 25 and the remaining one-third of invitations to come Jan. 30; if you aren’t going to get invited, then you’ll be hearing that on the second batch release day. Those offered a deferred consideration in Round 1 should also hear something on the second-wave day.

Yes, we do recommend a Round 1 application to Harvard. Definitely. It’s still possible to make it in during Round 2 but you have a LOT more competition against you then.

Harvard MBA Recommendations

Harvard is again using semi-standardized recommender questions in 2017 — however if other schools will also stay “standardized” remains to be seen!

Two recommendations

Two questions for them to answer

We explain the concept of “standardized” recommender questions and offer an important resource for you to give to your recommenders, to make their job easier. In 2016, there was a small group including Harvard that used one version of “standardized” questions, and there was a larger group of schools using a different set of NEWLY standardized questions. (are you confused yet? yeah). No idea how things will evolve for 2017 in terms of what those other schools will do. We can say that Harvard is sticking to what it’s done for the last several years, so there’s consistency on their side.

The first issue of course is, who do you choose to write for you? We have a number of posts about recommenders here on the blahg (on the first page of the site, use the dropdown menu in the righthand panel to choose Recommendations to get a list of all of them). If you want more help, our Letters of Recommendation App Accelerator walks through the specifics and lets you submit your recommenders’ strategy for feedback from EssaySnark.

Interview Invitations at HBS

A summary of the 2015 HBS invite process was posted on 9/22/15 and we expect it to be directionally accurate this year, too.

HBS works like this: You submit your app, the Admissions Board reads all of them (in no particular order – it doesn’t matter what time you submitted or if it went in earlier or later than someone else’s, or what geography or career you’re in), then about a month-ish later, they will issue interview invites.

When they implemented this process originally, those invites came out in three waves over the course of two weeks (three Wednesdays in a row), then it went down to two; for Rd 1 2015 it was three waves of invitations scattered over only about a week. Round 2 in January 2017 is now confirmed as two Wednesdays in a row, so just one week total.

The first wave has tended to be significantly bigger than the second one (the bulk of the invites will go out on that first day). The day of the last wave of invites is when everyone not being invited to interview is told that they didn’t make it; they call that the “release.” Instead of getting an invite or release on that final day, it’s also possible to be put in the “further consideration” bucket, which is sort of like a waitlist but you’re not accepted, you’re just someone they’re hanging onto because they’re still interested in you.

The invitations are issued in batch mode, all at once, at noon Eastern time on the scheduled day. If they want to meet you, you’ll get an email which says to check your app for status. If you don’t get an email on either of the first two days, you didn’t get an interview (yet – but it could still come on the last day). Everyone who wasn’t already invited to interview gets an email on the last day of the sequence. If you haven’t received any email by, say, 12:05pm Eastern time then it’s not gonna come that day.

In 2013, HBS invited 1,887 people to interview across the whole season. That’s 20% of the 9,543 applications they received. (We don’t recall seeing this data from HBS for 2014 but it’s comparable, they tend to invite similar numbers every year regardless of app volumes.) Generally speaking they invite more of their applicants in Round 1 – something like 1,000 – yet most schools including Harvard tend to get more applications submitted in Round 2 – so right there tells you that Round 1 is an advantage. It appears that in Round 1 2015 HBS got enough apps that they decided to issue interviews to ~50 more candidates. Here’s more details on the data as of the 2012-’13 season if you want to see how it broke down in past years.

Remember that getting invited to interview in one wave versus another within the invite-day sequence means nothing in terms of the strength of your candidacy. Dee Leopold says this every year. We did a post on the blahg about it on 10/9/13 (but nobody seems to believe us… so we wrote another post on 10/11/13 to explain it all again). HOWEVER: There are greater chances that you’ll be invited in the first wave, if you’re going to be invited at all, simply because in past years, they have invited the bulk of applicants in the first chunk.

If you’re placed on the pre-interview waitlist in Round 1 – what they call “Further Consideration” (other schools just call it a “waitlist”) – then you’ll either get invited to interview, or released, on the Round 2 interview dates, usually in the first wave. If you’re on the post-interview Round 1 waitlist, you’ll probably get the final answer (admit or deny) on the Round 2 decision date.

If you get an invite, you need to be prepared to travel, since these are adcom-interviews conducted in hub cities around the world. They won’t be flying to your doorstep to meet you. You’ll need to make some arrangements, and yeah it’ll likely require taking some time off of work. But don’t freak out about that part; if you end up getting the invite, you will make it happen, we’re confident (and Harvard is flexible with extreme situations like deployed military).

So that you can be prepared: here’s an explanation of the HBS Mid-Cycle Decision and the Moods of a BSer.

Harvard’s Post-Interview Reflection

The gist of it is, within 24 hours after your interview, you’ll need to submit something (an essay that’s not an essay but it’s basically an essay – even if the admissions people claim it’s not an essay) that is, again, totally open-ended. Can you see how much Harvard wants to see how you deal with ambiguity? That’s kind of what leaders have to do all the time, right?

The Post Interview Reflection is a chance for you to tell the Harvard Admissions Board that thing that occurred to you, that you realized you should’ve said the moment you walked out of the interview room. Or it’s an opportunity or try to fix your answer to that one question you completely flubbed. Or if you can’t think of anything else, maybe reiterate your application “theme” (though honestly we don’t think that’s such a great idea, that’s just our personal Snark opinion).

If you’ve been invited to interview at Harvard – GREAT! CONGRATULATIONS!! Now you really should pick up our HBS Application Guide if you don’t already have it.

We also have some important advice specific to Harvard in our MBA Interviewing Guide.

HBS Useful Info and some Snark

Harvard posted a preliminary Class of 2017 profile on 6-8-15 – but then later we saw the full profile including GMAT scores and we blinked.

An 80% range of scores of 700 to 760?!? Really?? OUCH! It’s still possible to get in with a score outside that range but boy is it going to be tough.

For reference, here’s the Class of 2016 profile posted at the same point in time the prior year (6-3-14) — which looked very similar to the Class of 2015. So, same GMAT (median 730, full range 510 – 790 – but you know there’s only one or two in the 510 range); same GPA (3.67 – ouch!) and same age (27 years old). The only difference is there’s more apps than ever – a 1.5% increase – and they marginally bumped up the class size, to 948.

Takeaways? That it’s just as hard as ever to get into Harvard Business School.

Direct from Harvard

Snarkety snark snark

and finally, just:

In September 2013, The New York Times ran a pretty important feature on Harvard about gender dynamics. A few days later, a follow-up article was published on class at HBS (not the kind of “class” with teachers). This resulted in lots of media coverage and big conversations across all the business schools. EssaySnark’s reaction is here.

For Reference: Harvard’s Past-Season Questions

Provided for posterity. And because it helps you to understand this school.

Click to view last year's question

This year they have rolled back to a simplified version of the question they asked previously:

One essay, unlimited length:

“As we review your application, what more would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy for the Harvard Business School MBA Program?”

They first asked a version of this question in 2013, for the Class of 2016. This year’s incarnation is really the epitome of a perfect essay question. They’re basically saying, “Tell us what you think is important.”

Here’s advice from the ‘Snarchives which offers a very good place to start thinking about that: The most important thing to remember with your Harvard essay

It also doesn’t hurt to view the video that was part of the official question last year . Knowing what a school is about is the first step in figuring out how to express that you’re a good fit to the place.

Every year, EssaySnark provides insights and recommendations for how to handle the HBS application – and we have now done that for all you Class of 2019 prospects! Expanded and revised to give you the greatest advantage in setting your strategy.

Harvard’s Class of 2018 profile shows you what you’re up against: Average GPA of 3.67, median GMAT of 730. The average GMAT is – gulp – 729 (frequently when the median and mean diverge then that tells you the numbers are scattered across a wider range, but this implies that the full 100% range of scores isn’t that much different than the 80% range reported of 690 to 760). App volumes at Harvard have increased for many years running: up 4% for the Class of 2015, up 2.4% for the Class of 2016, up 1.5% for the Class of 2017, and up 3.2% for the Class of 2018 (the last data available at this point).

[end discussion of 2016 HBS app]

Click to view the 2015 question

They mixed it up in 2015-’16, but it’s not THAT different from what they had before. Our 2015 HBS essay guide goes into the details.

Here’s the question:

It’s the first day of class at HBS. You are in Aldrich Hall meeting your “section.” This is the group of 90 classmates who will become your close companions in the first-year MBA classroom. Our signature case method participant-based learning model ensures that you will get to know each other very well. The bonds you collectively create throughout this shared experience will be lasting.

Introduce yourself.

Note: Should you enroll at HBS, there will be an opportunity for you to share this with them.

We suggest you view this video before beginning to write.

First step: Review that video – and review it again! You should also check out their HBS MBA Voices student-focused blog , which should serve as a real goldmine of insights about the school (though PLEASE do not simply parrot the information you view/read/hear from any of these sources into your essays!!! that’s like such a rookie mistake – and yeah, we see it all the time).

As a reminder, this is what they asked for the two years previous:

“You’re applying to Harvard Business School. We can see your resume, academic transcripts, extracurricular activities, awards, post-MBA career intentions, test scores, and what your recommenders have to say about you. What else would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy?”

Advice from EssaySnark: The most important thing to remember with your Harvard essay (August 2014) – this is still relevant even with the new wording of the 2015-’16 question. And: Here’s how everyone is muffing things up with their Harvard essay (August 2015).

Advice from Harvard: Be sure to read their Direct from the Director post dated 15 May 2015 (you may have to scroll down on that page to find it) – Admissions Director Dee Leopold gives some useful guidelines to use as an important starting point.[end discussion of last year’s HBS app]

Yes, we do recommend a Round 1 application to Harvard. Definitely. It’s still possible to make it in during Round 2 but you have a LOT more competition against you then (and it sounds like this year’s Round 1 was as full as ever). Regardless, a great app is needed in any round for Harvard Business School.

Harvard’s Class of 2017 profile is pretty crazy: Even higher stats for GPA and GMAT (80% range for students starts at 700?!??), average age still 27, admit rate down to 11%, even with an increase in class size. They received almost 10,000 apps for the Class of 2018 and we expect these stats to be very similar. Given these daunting figures, maybe you’d like to get EssaySnark’s opinion on your Harvard essay?

[end discussion of 2015 HBS app]

Click to view the 2014 question

They had the same-exact requirements in 2013: One essay, unlimited length, technically optional. We discuss it quite a bit here on the blahg. Here’s the question:

You’re applying to Harvard Business School. We can see your resume, school transcripts, extra-curricular activities, awards, post-MBA career goals, test scores and what your recommenders have to say about you. What else would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy?

We’ll say it again: Our HBS MBA application guide is very detailed, and it gives you important insights into how the HBS Admissions Board thinks about stuff. It’s been revised to reflect the new “Introduce yourself” question, with additional checklists and tests you can perform on your essay to make sure it’s presenting you as it should. Don’t apply to Harvard just because it’s Harvard; you’re likely to end up heartbroken. Read that guide, and study this blahg, and then make an informed decision – and create an infinitely stronger strategy – with your approach.

How interviews worked in 2014’s Round 1 – deadline was 9/9/14

First wave interview invites: October 8 – an estimated 800 candidates received one (for 2015 Dee Leopold said they’d issue 900 invites that first day)

Second wave invites (another 150 candidates got one), “further consideration” invitations (a variation on the waitlist but essentially the same; about 200 of these went out), and release of all others: October 15 (for 2015 there were two more waves, with ~350 total invites between them, and another ~100 FC invites)

Interviews held from October 20 to November 21. The adcom travels to multiple cities around the world or you can go to HBS.

How it worked in 2014’s Round 2 – deadline was 1/6/15 – sorry that we don’t have data, only dates

First wave interview invites: January 28

Second wave invites, waitlist invitations, and release of all others: February 4

[end discussion of 2014 HBS app]

Click to view the 2013 question

2013 application and what we said about it

Just one question!

With no word limits!! Harvard asks:

You’re applying to Harvard Business School. We can see your resume, school transcripts, extra-curricular activities, awards, post-MBA career goals, test scores and what your recommenders have to say about you. What else would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy?

They’ve also reduced the number of recommendations to just two, from three.[end discussion of 2013 HBS app]

ADVICE FOR BRAVE SUPPLICANTS GOING FOR HARVARD: EssaySnark REALLY (really really really) recommends that you don’t write HBS as your first essay, ever. You’ll end up doing a lot of rework, we can almost 100% guarantee it. We suggest enlisting our help with the Complete Essay Package on such an important school – or on some other school first. Or getting another school’s essays reviewed by us before even writing a single word for Harvard. No matter what, the HBS essay shouldn’t be the first essay anyone writes. You’re not going to optimize your chances by cutting your teeth on the very hardest one. You need to figure out how to write an admissions essay before you try to write one for Harvard. Just like Neo in the Matrix: Everyone falls the first time. Don’t use the hardest essay in the world as your learning process.

Highlights from HBS Admissions Webinar July 2, 2014

In 2013, HBS invited 1,887 people to interview. [That’s almost 20% of the 9,543 applications they received. The Class of 2016 is 936 students. -ES]

A new section of the app this year asks about non-degree coursework; you can include MOOCs and other online (non-credit) work you’ve done. [This is to help you demonstrate analytical abilities. -ES]

Everybody needs to take the GMAT or GRE (they are agnostic as to which one); no exceptions.

The resume you upload can be more than one page, but you should ask yourself, “Does it need to be?” [No. -ES]

In the app, they ask about your intended post-MBA industry and function. HBS does not want a “laminated life plan” but they do want to know your general direction.

There’s a separate app question to cover additional information; this is not an essay. [You can use this to explain gaps in employment or circumstances surrounding a low GPA, as you would with other schools’ “optional essays” – but again, with HBS, this is not an essay – and also, you should be able to cover that in your actual Harvard essay, probably. -ES]

All financial aid awards are need-based; they don’t do merit-based fellowships. This means you don’t get news of scholarship money at the time of admission, like other schools do. [Basically you should be happy with the admit itself! They don’t feel the need to bribe you to attend. -ES]

Of course, Dee talked about the “optional” essay and what they saw in successful applicants last year.

EssaySnark covered many of these points in detail in the 2016 Harvard Guide.

Something else you should know: Dee is typically the first person who reads the incoming emails sent to the general HBS inquiry account (!). The most common question they get is, “Do I have to take the TOEFL?” The next most common: “Do I need to take the GMAT?” (Hint: Their requirements are pretty darned clear on their website .) Takeaway message: Don’t write a stupid email to Harvard admissions. Do your research first, and then – and only then – ask the question if you cannot find the answer elsewhere.

EssaySnark reviews of Harvard’s 2014 essays

EssaySnark reviews of Harvard’s 2013 essays

We did a bunch of reviews of Harvard essays on GMAT Club in September 2013; the question hasn’t really changed even with the “Introduce yourself” thing, so you may want to check those out. Alas, our contract with GMATClub was not extended so we’re not doing reviews over there any more.

EssaySnark reviews of Harvard’s 2012 essays

And even older than that (2011 and later) – these are still relevant because Harvard is still Harvard – they’ve been looking for the same qualities in a Brave Supplicant year after year:

Our Essay Ideas App Accelerator includes a free BONUS: a sample essay that won! Review the original draft and EssaySnark’s complete Essay Decimator critique for the 2011 HBS Essay 1, on “three accomplishments” – study it for free and make your Harvard essay that much stronger.

And we’ll say it again: Our HBS MBA application guide is very detailed, and it gives you important insights into how the HBS Admissions Board thinks about stuff. Don’t apply to Harvard just because it’s Harvard; you’re likely to end up heartbroken. Read that guide, and study this blahg, and then make an informed decision – and create an infinitely stronger strategy (with a professional’s opinion on your HBS essay, even).

[Index of essay questions by business school]

When applying to business school, the essay can make or break your chances of admittance.

Who are you, beyond the GMAT?

To get to know their prospective students, Harvard Business School asked applicants to answer the following question in 2015:

"It's the first day of class at HBS. You are in Aldrich Hall meeting your 'section.' This is the group of 90 classmates who will become your close companions in the first-year MBA classroom. Our signature case method participant-based learning model ensures that you will get to know each other very well. The bonds you collectively create throughout this shared experience will be lasting. Introduce yourself."

The Harbus, HBS's student newspaper, publishes an annual collection of successful answers in "The Essay Guide." One of the best examples of a strong essay, "The Balance Act," from the 2016 edition of the guide, is included below.

The applicant is a woman from the US who worked in manufacturing/engineering product management and operations before applying to business school.

"I've been to Reno, Winnemucca, Salt Lake City, Chicago, Buffalo..." What sounds like a verse from Hank Snow's "I've Been Everywhere" is actually the chain of cities I've crossed four times since 2011. You see, the first engineering position I took after college required that I relocate for new assignments every six months.

If you had peered inside my car during one of those moves, you'd have struggled to guess my age (more than 300 vinyl LPs lay stacked in the trunk), my profession (the back seat was jammed with boxes of cake decorating tools), or why a person with Illinois plates owned a Buffalo Bills football (as my Bills enter the 2016 season now having missed the playoffs for 16 consecutive years, I'm struggling with that one too).

The link behind these seemingly dissimilar interests lay on the dashboard, in a dog-eared page of Sheena Iyengar's "The Art of Choosing." On that page, a Wynton Marsalis quote read: "You need to have some restrictions in jazz. Anyone can improvise with no restrictions, but that's not jazz. Jazz always has some restrictions. Otherwise it might sound like noise."

The thing to know about me is this: my two favorite things are CHAOS and CONTROL. "Get Smart" reference aside; I love rules ("restrictions" for Marsalis), but also disorder. I love routines, but also spontaneity.

Contradictory? Not really. My desire for routine (jigsaw puzzles over coffee every Sunday) and my flair for spontaneity (impromptu urban taco crawls) at times reveal themselves in quite separate pursuits. But more and more, the two combine into structured, yet inventive projects (most recently, a Kanban inventory system for custom cookies in my four-person apartment).

My upbringing built in me the love for "control." My dad, a lawyer and a lifelong coach, taught me to trust rules and fundamentals. I started playing baseball, repeating daily the same basic drills on the batting tee. I taught myself to cook, studying family recipes and following them to a T. I listened to my parents' LPs, memorizing every lyric and mimicking every note on the violin or piano.

Routine ruled my life. And I loved it, particularly as an athlete. I was recruited to the [TOP U.S. MIDWESTERN CITY PRIVATE UNIVERSITY] Softball team, where I continued emphasizing the fundamentals: throwing, glove work, sprints. These fundamentals made the "fun" stuff — making diving catches, throwing people out, winning — possible. Where fans saw graceful, instinctive skill, I saw a series of assessments, decisions, and actions.

This unwavering faith in fundamentals would propel me to success until 2010, when, after 15 years spent perfecting the skills my sport demanded, I hit a slump. To respond, I worked harder at the same drills I had always known. I re-ran weekly our toughest workout (up every stair in the 48,000-seat football stadium) with the expectation that more practice would make me "good" again.

No effort I made led to improvement, however, and I was eventually benched.

I to that point had defined self-worth solely by athletic performance. So when I felt my career ending despite extreme effort, I almost lost faith in those fundamentals.

That same year, though, I had joined a campus group, [NAME OF CAMPUS CHRISTIAN ATHLETE GROUP]. A group leader one day called for someone to bring food to the meetings. Remembering studying family recipes as a kid, I volunteered.

I ended up cooking for [CAMPUS CHRISTIAN ATHLETE GROUP] every week for two years, earning the nickname "Chef [APPLICANT'S LAST NAME, WITH AN 'IE' AT THE END]." I quickly discovered that the thing I loved about softball, I too loved about cooking — that I could learn fundamental "rules" (like throwing a ball, or packing brown sugar) to do something bigger (like winning a game, or baking a killer snickerdoodle).

But I discovered a freedom in the kitchen that I had never experienced as an athlete. I was instinctively substituting an ingredient here, tweaking a step there, to create new recipes. Just as Marsalis and others did with their music, I was taking the cooking rules and now re-arranging them into improvised creations, such as the ever popular "Molson Maple Glazed Donut."

That small change in approach in the kitchen gave me the appetite to improvise, and even explore, elsewhere. It provoked me to take the rotational position that soon sent me packing to new cities every six months. It motivated me to embrace new cultures as I moved, rather than live inside my known rules. It led me to taste stinky tofu in Hangzhou, China, to become the biggest Buffalo Bills fan you'll ever meet, and to try hang gliding in California (I won't be doing that again).

Throughout these adventures, though, I've held onto rules, to traditions. I explore each new city by running its best stairs, to honor those [UNDERGRAD UNIVERSITY] workouts. And I fill each new apartment with my boxes of LPs and cooking supplies.

The rules, the routines are still important — in fact, necessary — for me to create.

That's what brings me here — that mix of rules and improvisation, of control and chaos. I want the rigidity of finance and engineering mixed with the volatility of interacting with real people. I want to study through Case, the perfect marriage of preparation and adjustment. I want to take my existing knowledge of operations in manufacturing and transform it to retail and consumer goods.

I hope you'll each introduce yourselves to me over the next few weeks. You can find me running Harvard Stadium on Fridays or watching the Bills at Bleacher Bar on Sundays, as I learn to combine my existing routines with this new school and new city.

And as we go through TOM, I'll create a miniature cookie "factory" in my kitchen for anyone who wants to practice the basics of production flow. I'm thinking we can make Heath Bar Sandie's.

The editors of the guide provide a brief analysis of the strengths of each essay. For this particular one, they point out that the author nicely incorporates her many interests, including "athletics background, her love for cooking and her regular travel as part of her job."

The author also shows how these facets of her personality make her a good fit for business school.

"Towards the end, the author ties in her theme with the HBS case method by describing the cases as a perfect combination of 'chaos' and 'control' — thus emphasizing, in a very innovative way, how the program will be a perfect fit for her," the guide says.